Summer Advanced Institute Retrospective

At a time when teacher morale is plummeting, and burnout is peaking, we needed collective teacher-centered explorations into what practices and institutional changes will sustain and re-moralize (Santoro) educators. In this Advanced Institute, we came together to write, discuss, read, and listen to local mindfulness and trauma experts, about how mindfulness, community care, and critical inquiry might help us move forward from the collective trauma of the pandemic--and all the pressure teachers bore as a result. We asked: What practices might best sustain us as individuals and as educators? How can we be teacher-leaders in our schools, who support other educators and our students through this difficult time? How can we come together to ask for resources and support from administrators and policy makers? Together, we worked toward solutions of restoration and rebuilding--of ourselves and our educational cultures.